"Find coming to the hospital emotionally draining."

The overbooking of patients in the clinic is totally unacceptable, having to go to an afternoon clinic and travelling some distance by taxi,train,tram and bus with my disabled son is quite stressfull especially when im getting home at 7pm!!

I understand its priority patients first and also realise i do have to wait but surely this needs your prior attention.

This is my 3rd visit and its always the same!!!

What could be improved

Having more than one toilet in outpatients that is in working order would be good.

Opening morning clinics so i could get home in daylight.

In summer when i attended the heat in outpatients was unbearable especially for sick children, again it was too overcrowded.

Having more than one person making appoinments would also help, in Feb i waited in line for 40 mins to book the next appointment.

Maybe a staff member walking around to let patients know the clinic is running late would be good as you only see staff when they cross out the time delay on the board.

Responses

Thank you for taking the time to post a comment about this issue. We are sorry that you experienced a delay with your appointment and have done on previous visits. Due to unforeseen circumstances appointments do unfortunately sometimes run late. This can be due to a number of reasons, including staffing issues or a patient’s treatment taking longer than expected. It is very difficult to respond to the specific concerns you have raised (ie overbooked clinics and your request for morning clinics) without being able to investigate in detail. We would be grateful if you felt you could discuss these specific issues so that we can aim to improve future visits for you please contact our Patient Advice and Liaison Service on 0161 276 8686 or e-mail pals@cmft.nhs.uk.

The Out-patient department has four toilets for use by families and visitors; there are also two additional toilets in the main Atrium / hospital entrance area. We apologise if some of these facilities were unsuitable during your visit. Unfortunately, we do experience raised temperatures in the hospital during the summer. The hospital is exploring solutions to this which should hopefully improve the environment in the future.

We have also invested in a ‘Self Check-In’ system which from April will allow families visiting Out-patients to book in at terminals within the hospital entrance area using touch screen technology. This should resolve the issue we sometimes experience with queues at the main reception area.

If you are visiting the hospital again and experience any similar problems please raise these with a member of staff so that we can ensure you and your son are appropriately supported.